Mumbai:Three rebel Shiv Sena legislators on Friday alleged that then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had denied `Z plus' security cover to Eknath Shinde despite a threat from naxals. But a Minister of State (MoS) for the home department in the Thackeray-led government denied the allegation.
Shinde, now Maharashtra chief minister, was `guardian minister' for the naxal-affected Gadchiroli in the Thackeray government besides being minister for Urban Development. In February 2022, two months after 26 naxals were killed in police action in Gadchiroli, he had received a threatening letter, according to police.
Suhas Kande and former MoS Home (Rural) Shambhuraj Desai, both Sena MLAs and Shinde supporters, told a news channel that Thackeray had directed that Shinde's security should not be upgraded. Police had informed Thackeray and then home minister (Dilip Walse-Patil of NCP) that naxals had come to Mumbai to kill Shinde, claimed Kande.
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"Still, security was not provided to him. Anti-Hindutva people were given security, then why not a Hindutva leader?" he asked. Desai told the same TV channel that he got a call from Thackeray asking if the home department had held any meeting about upgrading Shinde's security. "I told him that a meeting was being held that day. I was given clear directions that security can not be upgraded," he claimed.
Shinde became chief minister last month with the BJP support after toppling the Thackeray-led Sena-NCP-Congress government. Deepak Kesarkar, spokesperson of the Shinde-led faction of the Sena, told reporters that Desai had told him that he got a call at 8 am one day, instructing him that Shinde's security should not be upgraded. Kesarkar, however, declined to state who was the caller.
But Congress leader Satej Patil, who was MoS Home (Urban) in the Thackeray government, told reporters that a committee headed by the chief secretary decides who should get what category of security and the home minister or even chief minister do not interfere with its decisions.
"Shambhuraj Desai and I had no say in such meetings. Shinde was with the Shiv Sena, why would the chief minister decide against providing him security? As guardian minister of Gadchiroli district, Shinde also had additional police security. I don't think there is any truth in these allegations," Patil said. Sena leader and Member of Legislative Council Sachin Ahir, who belongs to the Thackeray faction, also termed the allegation as "wrong."
There is a committee which takes decisions about providing security to any person, he said. (PTI)
